Confused about how to say larger numbers in English? In this video lesson, Rebecca shows you how, step-by-step, taking you from one to over a billion! You won’t avoid using numbers anymore, once you see how simple it can be.

Eleven million, two hundred and forty-three thousand, five hundred and one dollarsEleven billion, two hundred and forty-three thousand, five hundred and one dollarsEleven, two hundred and forty-three thousand, five hundred and one dollars

Four million thirty-six, two hundred and one, five hundred and forty-three dollarsFour hundred and thirty-six million, two hundred and one thousand, five hundred and forty-three dollarsFour hundred and thirty-six millions, two hundred and one thousands, five hundreds and forty-three dollars

How do you say the following? $ 547

Five four seven dollarsFifty-four seven dollarsFive hundred and forty-seven dollars

Hi,teacher glad to attend your first class, well, would you please like to tell me what’s the difference b/w these two sentences,I mean which one is correct:
1)”If You are having trouble”
Or
2)”If you having trouble”
Also make me conscious about my mistakes, If i have made…:)
Waiting for your reply
Thankyou..

Saturday, April 21st 2012

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(1) is correct. You could also say “If you have trouble”, which is more like “If you have trouble in the future”.

Forgive me if I am incorrect, but I think it is actually better to say these numbers WITHOUT the “and”.
“Four Hundred Seventy Four Thousand, Two Hundred Sixty Five”
There are a couple reasons for this, but the most common reason has to do with money. When you say “and”, it can signify that there is a “decimal point”. “Two hundred and sixty five” can be interpreted as $200.65, unless the context makes it obvious that this is not the case. Also, when writing in a checkbook, you generally Do Not include “and”. $543.21 is written in a checkbook as “Five Hundred Forty Three 21/100” dollars

In commonplace English, you might hear “and” used by some, but it is more proper not to use “and” unless implying a decimal number

Hi,Rebecca; what a interesting lesson.Thank you so much.
We say: 5 million, 3 billion etc, always we have to use the word million in singular,I mean:we can’t say: 5 millions (plural).Am I right.Thanks.

Monday, April 4th 2011

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Yes, we need to use the singular form in numbers and sentences like this:

“I won five million dollars in the lottery!”

In this case, five million is being used as an adjective for the word dollars.

Excellent job! Another great step would be to explain how to compare numerals (verbally, not mathematically)… For instance, how to say correctly 1) 2 9… or more sophisticated 3) 21 > 16 by 5 (“by” is OK??); 4) 6 [no preposition??] 1.5 times < 9…
Where is appropriate to use words like “double”, “triple”, “quadruple”, etc.??
Thanks in advance! Andriy AKA Jay Jr. aklsn [at] 3g [dot] ua

Hi Rebecca, may I ask you another question here?
I wonder how do we use the word “agent” and “candidate” in a sentence.
Sometimes I read some articles, the author use them like “agent of something” or “make something a candidate as/for ~”
I don’t really understand what they really mean. If you can make another lesson for this that would be great.
Anyway thanks again.

Dear Rebecca,
I really believe that every lesson is considered to be additional value to my life,you learn me not only english language but also how to represent…
Thank you for usual kind effort.
Medhat Nagy
Cairo-Egypt

hi madam,
this lesson is new to me.because when we telling for eg;599880=five million ninetynine thousand eight hundred and eighty .but we are telling five lakh ninetynine thousand eight eighty.and for this 200,00,000=two crore..please tell me weather this is correct or not.

Thanks, it was very helpful; if I resume we have to add “and” after “hundred”. And how about the years? 1956 (nineteen fifty six – no problems). But how about 2000th years? For example 2000, 2001, 2010, 2011. Is that twenty eleven / two thousand eleven / two thousand and eleven? Thank you for your response.

hello Rebecca ! I find your lesson really useful. could you tell me how to say the years ?, for example 2009, 2012. sometimes I hear some teacher say ” two thousand nine, two thousand twelve, is it true? thank you so much!

Could you tell please if the dash is necessary when I write something like “forty-six”, or forty six is also correct? Another question, which syllable is under stress in the word “fourteen”? First one: “fOurteen” or the second one: “fourtEEn”? I heard British people spoke “fOurteen” (first syllable is under stress).
Though when I google [define fourteen], it pronounces “fourtEEn” (the second syllable). Google speaks American English. How about the English in Canada, particularly, in Toronto!

Hi Rebecca,
All your lessons are helpful, thanks a lot.
Could you make an other lesson like that but we take a pen and a paper and we write all the information you tell us (dates, numbers,…), with the correction at the end on the board ;-) ?
Thank you for considering my idea :)

Hi! I think there is something wrong in this lesson. Last part are not 5 billions. That are 5 thousand 3 hundred and 65 millions. 5 billions would be 5,000000,000000

Wednesday, March 20th 2013

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Ah! “Billion” can either mean “a thousand million” or “a million million”. In North America and the UK, at least, “a thousand million” is the accepted meaning, but usage varies around the world. Here is a very detailed Wikipedia article on it.

Hi Rebecca, thanks a lot for this lesson, but I have one question about the different ways to express or say the numbers.
Time ago, I heard somebody that said “twenty-six hundred years” and the translation that this person did was “2600”… It is correct?… What are the common different ways to say the numbers?

Sorry if my english is not correct, but I’m learning in this moment
Once again, trank you very much

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Learn English for free with 1240 video lessons by experienced native-speaker teachers. Classes cover English grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, IELTS, TOEFL, and more. Join millions of ESL students worldwide who are improving their English every day with engVid.